Shadowborn (29 page)

“And what if you’re wrong?” Nix fell into step beside me. “I don’t mean to doubt you, but I don’t fancy becoming trapped here, either.”

“If I’m wrong, then we’re probably screwed, though I’m getting that we’re pretty much there anyway. There isn’t much I’m sure of right this minute, but I do know we’re not going to win this thing by playing it safe.” I stopped and caught each of their wary gazes. “If you disagree with me, you should go back to the car. Either way, I’m going.”

Whether because of their egos, guilt of duty or simple curiosity, they all straightened and nodded.

“All right, then. Let’s find us an elf.”

• • •

As we pushed our way through the same thick underbrush for the third time, my frustration heightened. “Arggg!” I hurtled my fist into the trunk. Delicious pain focused my attention. “We’re lost, Gallagher, and we’re running out of time. What’s the last symbol look like again?”

Nix snatched the map away from Gallagher’s hand. “It just looks like a circle, and I haven’t seen a fucking thing that looks like that. This is frustrating as hell. Although I’m grateful, I wish Galati had taken some lessons in map-making before she scratched this out.”

I tried using my Sight, but found nothing but gray trees and white, frozen ground.

“Are there any other minds present, Lila?” Gallagher’s eyes shined with excitement. If he didn’t sense any, why was he asking me?

I knelt on the cold ground and pressed my hands against the snow. Being careful not to disturb the darker side of the power—whether it came from Parthalan or not—I summoned my energy and pushed it through the earth.

Tiny sparks lit up in my head from all around, and not from any sort of mind I’d encountered before. Primitive and simple, like the small creatures of the world, they considered only food and safety, but something more, too. Sadness that told of conscious, suppressed, or so long abandoned it had atrophied like an unused muscle. Like the Sluagh, they shared at least a portion of one another, a collective mind that spanned a few acres.

“There’s something here, but …” Additional power and concentration told me nothing more.

“But what? What do you sense? There’s something, right? But not a usual something.” His body rigid, Gallagher put a hand on my shoulder.

A survey of the dark trees didn’t provide any further hints. No movement. No sound other than the growing wind.

“The trees sound different, don’t you think?” Cas crouched, one hand on the hilt of his sword. “Like they’re whispering to one another.”

The moment he said it, the sound took on new meaning. “Are there any legends that involve trees, Gallagher? If so, now would be a good time to enlighten me.”

“Humans have written tales of dryads. They are said to be female wood nymphs. Do you have a sense if they are male or female? I sense nothing more than a presence.”

Another prod of the simple minds gave me my answer. “Female. I think.”

Something snaked around my ankle and yanked me backwards. Nix leapt to grab my arms, but he, too, fell on his face. He disappeared into the brush, letting out a cry that sounded more like surprise than pain.

When I looked for the other two, they had been covered with thick, leafless vines, pinned to the ground under them.

My bindings lifted me into the air by my left leg until I dangled above the ground, my hair barely brushing the snow.

Just perfect.

25

For a third time, I forced my Will into the minds controlling the vines that bound me. They only cinched tighter. Pins and needles stabbed at my shins.

Thankful for my strong abs, I swung my upper body up and tried to pry my fingers under the thick ropes around my leg. They didn’t budge. I flopped upside down again, my hair swishing back and forth against my dangling arms.

Muffled cries came from Cas and Gallagher. Furious screeches came from Nix on the other side of the thicket.

“What do you want?” I growled and thrashed. “We’re looking for an elf. Galati sent us for her.”

It occurred to me Galati never said the elf was a she, but for some reason, the knowledge filled my head as if it had always been there. Had I sensed her mind among the tree creatures?

The ground rumbled, and little balls of crystals skittered along the cold crust. Before my eyes, a hole, at least five feet wide, opened beside Gallagher. A tall form emerged wearing a cloak woven from what appeared to be the strands from inside a milkweed pod.

Pale hands came out the ends of the long sleeves and pushed the hood away from a narrow face. Hair as white as the cloak tumbled out. Blue beads dangled from fine braids at the front. At first she appeared young, but a closer inspection revealed a network of fine wrinkles around striking, violet eyes.

“Release them.” A wave of her hands sent the vines retreating to wherever they’d begun.

I crashed to the ground, my forearms taking the brunt of my fall.

She turned to me. “Forgive my friends. They know not the difference between friend and foe.” She offered a bow. “I have been waiting many years for you, Lila Gray. Why has it taken so long?”

“Uh …” I looked to Gallagher for help, but all I got was a shrug. “Are you the one who foretold my coming? Is that why you’ve been waiting for me?” Aided by a few grunts, I righted myself on feet that tingled as the blood rushed back.

“You may call me Talawen. And yes, I saw the one who can free the Goddess’s children from their oppressors long ago. Forsaking my immortality, I remained in the human world to aid this crossroads of your journey, so that
you
might find me.”

“Why didn’t you just look for me?” I asked as Nix arrived from wherever he’d been dragged off to, his face still red. Cas brushed off snow from his butt as he rose to his feet.

A hint of sadness seeped into her expression. “Orders from my elders are binding, Lila Gray. I was forbidden to search you out, and I went into hiding before Alogason could forbid me any dealings with you. Galati and I have tea every Tuesday in secret. She, too, disagrees with the cowardly path our people are choosing. So, here I have waited to do my part.”

Another bit of guilt invaded me at the knowledge that I’d forced an elf from her home.

She beckoned us forward with a wave of her dainty fingers and offered Gallagher her other hand. “Please, come in peace. Enter my home, and I shall give you all you need.”

Three sets of feet tromped down behind me as I followed the elf down stone steps into the earth—finally connected to the black circle on the map. Nice of Galati to tell us it didn’t open unless Talawen wanted it to.

Dampness wet my skin, and the earthen scent of soil tickled my nose. At the bottom, a cavern opened into a cozy nook with a fire crackling out of a small urn. No smoke rose from it, and no chimney sat above to carry it away, anyway. It occurred to me we’d wandered into some strange, magical creature’s cave. One who controlled the trees, too. Not the most intelligent move we’d ever made, but nothing about the woman set off my alarm bells, only my sense of curiosity.

The four of us crowded onto one roughly carved bench along the dirt wall. Talawen knelt by the fire, waving her hand around the flames that curled and responded to her touch.

Unnerved by Gallagher’s jiggling knee, I jammed my hand down on his thigh to still it. “You said something about the Goddess’s children. Did you mean the humans?”

“By the moons of Freymoor, no.” Fire sparked under Talawen’s hands.

I squinted at her. “So … the humans are the oppressors, then?”
Here we go.
The whole scenario reeked of Parthalan all over again.

“No, child. We do not see them as the enemy, only a people who are in need of guidance.” A shake of her head sent her hair tangling around her face. “Though the Magi may view them differently—more as ants to be displaced into their rightful places.”

“The Magi.” I breathed the words, afraid if I said it louder my hope of finally knowing what they were would vanish.

“Those who have rebelled against the Goddess’s will have taken that name, yes. Nature’s daughters. The rest are the daughters’ offspring.”

“Nature’s daughters?” As I stared at the network of roots winding along the ceiling, once again detecting the simple thoughts, the pieces fit together. “The trees.”

“Lila?” That from Nix.

“The minds I felt before … these trees are the offspring of the Magi.”

“Impressive, Lila Gray, and not only them, but some humans as well,” Talawen said, a smile curling her thin lips. “Though most of the tree children have lost their ability to think. Those above you now have connected through the root system and have managed to hold onto a portion of their former selves, though they can no longer move anything other than their limbs.”

“So they used to be able to move around? The trees?” Cas scratched his crown as he tipped his head back toward the wooden ceiling.

“Let me guess,” I said, “The Magi can still move?”

A spark ignited hatred in the depths of her stare. “They are not like the creatures above you. More like a fae in body and beauty, fierce and wild, a meld between a tree and a human. Something happened to make them bold in recent decades. They have stolen magic from multiple sources, though to what ultimate end, I have not been able to determine.”

“I guess that means you don’t know why they hired the Shadowborn to bring me to them?”

“Until my children told me they’d seen Alastair in my forest weeks ago, I did not know the Magi had gone to such lengths to claim you. And no, I do not know why they want you, only that they do. Desperately. I have foreseen their desire for decades.”

“Are the Magi also in this forest?” Nix asked. “Can you take us to them?”

“They dwell on the far side of the glen, beyond the hills to the east, but look all we might, we will not find them if they do not wish it so.” Her face flushed with what I took to be shame. “And I cannot leave the children to their own defenses for fear the Magi will reclaim them. It embarrasses me that I, too, fear what ancient magic they attempt to summon.”

“Reclaim them how?” I stood and brushed my fingers along one of the roots. They trembled under my touch, reminding me of the shifters in the fae cities. Were they cousins, too?

“That, I do not fully understand, only that these beings who count on me for protection fear them more than fire—more than anything that could destroy them. That should give you a sense of what you will face.”

Gallagher’s knee resumed its excited jiggling. “Although I wish we didn’t have to leave so soon, we are already running late.”

Talawen rose in a fluid motion, smoothing the lines of her cloak with her hands. “You need but tell me where you wish to go, and I shall make it so.”

He grinned and offered his hand. She smiled down toward it before slipping one delicate palm beneath his, and one above. “May we return, Talawen?” he asked in a voice richer in tone than I’d ever heard from him. If I didn’t know better, I’d say the sly old fox was flirting with the elf. “Is there more we are to know?”

“All who are loyal to your worthy queen are welcome here.” Her violet eyes pierced through to the center of my soul. “I would very much like to meet you tomorrow before you face Alastair, Lila Gray. Where my kin have failed you out of fear, I may be able to help you further on your way toward victory.”

A strange swelling in my chest confused me. Pride? The beginnings of a stroke? Either way, I kind of liked hearing that someone who didn’t have to like me hadn’t yet given up on me. Dread spilled in to dampen my temporary high. “How much danger am I putting you in by talking to you?”

The most genuine smile I’d ever seen shone back at me. “No danger is enough to keep me from my promise to the Goddess’s children. And now I make a promise to another of her beloved creations. By my life or death, if I can help you restore this world to its previous splendor, then I will do it with joy.”

Although I didn’t get an answer to my question, I’d seen that kind of defiance before—when Willa went with me to the Black City to face Parthalan the first time. Something told me Talawen wouldn’t back away from a fight any more than my selkie friend would.

“Thank you.” I smiled despite my unease.

The rest uttered their thanks and reached out to touch her in some way, Cas on her arm, Gallagher with a kiss to the back of her hand before slipping his out from between them. Nix hugged her and whispered something that sent a tear rolling down her face into the corner of her curved-up lips.

Talawen led us to the far wall and placed her palm flat against it. “To Seven Gates, I presume?”

We’d have to go back for the car, presuming it didn’t drive itself to wherever Cas kept it—which wouldn’t have surprised me. “Yes, please.” I offered her my arms like Nix had. The tall elf squeezed me tight, pressing my face into her chest because of our height difference.

“Be well, Lila Gray,” she whispered into the top of my head. “Love that is true can withstand even the most grueling trial. Remember this.”

I tipped my face up to her. Was she trying to tell me something? Grinding my teeth, I shook it off. I knew better than to get my hopes up for anything. Usually I ended up disappointed or heartbroken.

Veins of gold spread across the soil at Talawen’s touch. Eyes closed, she hummed a haunting melody that caused the roots of the trees to writhe and dance across the ceiling. The network of lines glowed and spread into what appeared to be a net of light. “Go now with my blessings.”

Nix and I pressed our bodies against the pulsing mesh. Warmth engulfed me. Only a moment passed before we burst out of the air and found ourselves standing on the frozen ground before Seven Gates.

Cas and Gallagher appeared seconds later.

After kissing me on the cheek, Cas walked along the wall and disappeared into the cavern that would return him to the Black City where Liam would take his Queen.

26

I stood in the corner of the grand hall wearing the gown Neasa had made for me after I vetoed the first three ridiculous clown suits she’d had the resident seamstresses sew. Frills, lace and sequins weren’t my bag. Instead, soft blue fabric hugged my curves, flaring out below my knee. The back dipped down almost to my butt crack and showed a little more cleavage than I’d typically wear. The glass beads sewn into the plunging neckline were pretty and tasteful, at least.